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Lu stands by Chen, tells US to back off over referendums

Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday defended President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) pledge to hold a national referendum during his presidency and urged the US not to interfere in the nation's domestic affairs.

"The US government is in no position to oppose our decision to hold referendums, which is a basic human right and also a mechanism to show the collective will of all Taiwanese," Lu said in a television interview yesterday.

"As an independent sovereign country, Taiwan, the Republic of China, will not allow any other country to interfere in its domestic affairs," Lu said.

She also praised Chen for demonstrating to the US Taiwan's resolution in realizing the DPP's long-term referendum policy.

"Since the US government expressed its concern about Taiwan's referendum issue, President Chen has made a remarkable statement in public that `Taiwan is neither a province nor a state of any country,'" Lu said. "Everybody should applaud the president for defending Taiwan's dignity."

Lu stressed that the president informed her of the details of the meeting between himself and American Institute in Taiwan Director Douglas Paal.

"President Chen clearly told me that Paal did not mention the US government's opposition to Taiwan's referendum policy," she said.

"Therefore, I believe that those media reports the day after the meeting all over-emphasized" the situation, she said.

"The media always selectively takes things out of context and then interprets them in a biased manner," Lu said.

She said that any tension across the Taiwan Strait was the result of Beijing's rude and irrational obstruction of Taiwan in the international community.

"We have seen how China cheated the world on the issue of SARS during the World Health Organization's [WHO] annual meeting as well as how its Vice Premier Wu Yi (吳儀) showed her arrogant attitude toward Taiwan's representatives during the occasion," Lu said.

"Those are the reasons we have to exercise a national referendum on the issue of joining the WHO to demonstrate the anger and resolution of all Taiwanese," she said.

Lu said that Taiwan should not be afraid of holding a referendum on independence because China remains a military and national security threat to the nation.

"In President Chen's inauguration speech, the prerequisite for his `five no's' promises, which included that the DPP government would not hold any national referendums on the independence issue, is that China must give up its military intimidation," Lu said.

"However, during the past three years, Beijing ignored President Chen's goodwill to make peace and enhance cross-strait exchanges, and instead accelerated its military expansion and deployed more weapons of mass destruction aimed at Taiwan," Lu said. "Therefore, we would be justified in making the independence referendum a reality."
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